Having recently started back at The Scotch Whisky Experience after a few years away, I was more than enthused and delighted to hear that there is now a corporate and social responsibility plan in place. What the company realised, was that our staff do a lot for and support many different charities in their own time, as do we as a business, but this wasn’t ever documented. This resulted in an opportunity for a ‘Corporate and Social Responsibility’ plan to be put together. We wanted all our staff and our visitors to know that we support a number of different charities. As many people who know me well, they will know that accessibility is a passion of mine. Why should a person with additional needs have a different experience on a day out to anyone else?
Our corporate and social plan details all the charities The Scotch Whisky Experience works with and supports. This year it was decided to encourage staff to put forward the names of charities they personally care about with a view to the company supporting these charities and our employees in some way. How fab is that?! This quarter’s charity of choice is St. Columba’s hospice. You will see their charity tins in our Whisky shop for coming months. When you see their tin, or indeed another charity in our whisky shop, you will know that the charity was personally chosen by a member of our team. I certainly have a charity in mind I will be putting forward very soon! (It’s logo is orange and blue) 🙂
In addition to local charities such as Social Bite and The Grassmarket Community Project, we have recently also supported Spirit Aid which offers humanitarian relief in Scotland, Palestine, Afghanistan and Malawi. Spirit Aid were the beneficiary of the donation through the auctioning of the barrel stave whisky map from the BBC’s ‘Scotch’ whisky documentary to which we featured together with many long-standing friends from the world of Scotch whisky.
If you see tartan Scottie dogs for sale in our shop, then they were made by members of the Grassmarket community. Their cuteness rating makes them great for a photo! The perfect Scottish pressie to take back home with you, along with your whisky of course. Where shipping whisky can be tricky we have been using these as a great alternative prize in some of our competitions and outreach.
As well as fundraising, our corporate social responsibility remit includes the way in which our team offers our customers the best experience possible. Alzheimer/ Dementia Scotland recently conducted training to our entire team offering a level of understanding which helps them in personal interactions with both customers, friends and family who have dementia/Alzheimer’s.
We also have a corporate membership with the John Muir Trust. The John Muir Trust is a conservation charity dedicated to protecting and enhancing wild places which we are proud to support. Our donation goes towards helping them to care for wild places, enabling people of all ages and backgrounds to connect with the outdoors.
It is great to work for a company who continuously invests in new technologies, equipment and facilities where possible and even supports my charity of choice.
If you are coming for a visit to The Scotch Whisky Experience, we do hope you will enjoy the tour! If you are someone with additional access needs, we’d love you to review your visit on Euan’s Guide . We are always looking for ways in which we can improve, so do let us know if you have any ideas. In the meantime, have a look at our Access Guide and if you have any comments for improvements, do let us know! Have a wee read of my guest piece on Euan’s Guide to find out more about visiting us too.
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